The start had been delayed, but when I arrived John Holder and Nigel Cowley were already on their way to the wicket, despite the fact that the main cover was still in place and it was raining quite hard. They gave up and came back and since the only cover afforded to spectators is in the main pavilion, I found myself scurrying inside.

It is a miserable place which has the feeling of the Fifties in both décor and poverty. The Long Room belies its name and the windows are heavily curtained which must severely restrict sightlines if you are tempted to watch from its confines. Behind the Long Room is the Members’ Room whose only concession to the century in which we find ourselves is an enormous TV screen which continuously shows every sport but cricket.

The members sit around at round tables bemoaning the fact that Cardiff is to host the first Ashes Test next summer and that they don’t have a Test. They completely fail to get the point that their stadium (sic) is pre-war at best and unacceptable in this century.

The loudspeaker system employed at the ground is fully functional in the toilets but mysteriously absent in the Members’ Room and so if you want to watch any cricket you have to keep dashing outside to see if it has stopped raining. This is irritating since the number of chairs available is strictly limited and to make this excursion risks losing a hard earned seat.

There were several rain interruptions during the day. At 6pm it stopped raining and the umpires announced that play would begin at 6.15pm. Why wait fifteen minutes? The watery evening sun was certainly not going to dry the outfield during this delay. The umpires then announced that despite the loss of thirty overs during the day only four more would be bowled. I then drove home during the next ninety minutes in brilliant sunshine.

4 Appeals

“This is irritating since the number of chairs available is strictly limited and to make this excursion risks losing a hard earned seat”

Find this most intriguing – if you baggsy a sunlounger with a towel – what do you use to baggsy a chair in the Members’ Lounge at OT? A portion of black pudden? One of your clogs? Here at the Riverside it’s your whippet. I suppose at Lords you get your valet to keep the seat safe and at the MCG it’s a meat pie floater scaring off the chair invaders